Standard business software may be written or developed such that it is generic enough to cover the needs of many different companies without further software development. Such a design of standard business software may allow it to present a lower total cost of ownership (TCO) when compared to specially commissioned or designed software packages that may have been specially tailored to meet the needs of a specific business enterprise.
However to ensure the same flexibility as the more individualized business software packages, the standard business software may allow for a large amount of standard settings to be customized to suit the needs of various end users. These customizable settings may determine, control and/or otherwise influence the processes and functionalities of the standard business software.
Certain standard business software packages may involve a large amount of customization such that the customization may be the subject of an entire implementation project (that may be executed by each end user or company of the standard business software). The implementation project may however involve considerable cost, thus increasing the TCO of the standard business software.
Simplifying the customization process of the standard business software may play a key role in reducing the TCO. For example, throughout the life of an implementation project, consultants or developers (commissioned to implement the customizations) may come and go from the project, whereby each new consultant may need to understand the existing logical flow of the standard business software, including any customizations that have already been made, in order to help implement further customizations.
Additionally, the more the standard business software is customized, the greater the likelihood that the customizations may result in unexpected output when executed by the software application. For example, an application with 100 customized steps may have a greater likelihood of generating unexpected output versus an application with only 10 customized steps. More customizations may also result in a greater number of customized steps that a developer or consultant needs to parse through to determine the source of the unexpected output. At which point it may be difficult and time-intensive for the consultant to try and determine precisely which customization step was responsible for producing the unexpected output, especially in the case of a large number of customization steps.